Convenience is no less a marketable commodity than debentures or commodity futures. For example, when shaving soap in aerosal cans first entered the market, many felt that such shaving soap dispensers could never gain a significant part of the market. For who, it was reasoned, would buy such expensive cans and expensive technology, when one could buy a simple bar of shaving soap that costs virtually nothing and lasts virtually forever. The exact opposite result has occured, and today bars of shaving soap command only a miniscule portion of the shaving soap market and indeed are often quite difficult to find in commercial outlets.
As anyone who must use a razor knows, its use is made inconvenient by the razor's tendency to become lost between uses, or otherwise contributes to clutter in one's bathroom. This commonplace experience suggests that any invention enabling a user to permanently store his razor between uses in a specific and easily remembered place would contribute greatly to the user's convenience. Additionally because the razor's user typically must also have a can of shaving soap, it would be especially convenient for such an apparatus to enable the user to store his razor on the shaving soap can itself.
The prior art does disclose stowable razor systems. Examples of such prior art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,429,352 to Garritson; 4,074,428 to Roberts; 3,349,484 to Zeles and 4,332,321 to Wratschko, each of which shows a razor with a pocket clip. Further prior art examples are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,111,757 to Dubofsky (showing a receptacle base for a razor), and 1,228,261 (tubular receptacles for storing toothbrushes, which could be used to store razors). Other prior art razors show lip structures which could, using hindsight, be used to attach the razors to ledge structures (such as the rim about a can of shaving soap); examples of these are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 840,965 to Schmachtenberg (see member B2), and 1,534,665 to Savage (see member M7). None of these razors are mountable on the soap dispenser itself, and most require cumbersome attachments that themselves can clutter one's bathroom or become lost.